BMW Oracle trimaran mistet masten

Den amerikanske utfordreren til de 33. seilaser om America's Cup, BMW Oracle Racing, fikk et alvorlig tilbakeslag igår da riggen gikk i sjøen da båten krysset i ca 9 knop. Båten lå da ca 9 nm syd for Coronado øyene mens båten var på treningstur fra sin base i San Diego.

Ingen ble skadet i uhellet og tidlige indikasjoner tyder på at det var forstaget eller baugsrydet som sviktet. Trimaranen ble tauet inn til basen etter fem tmer og RIBen med masten var ventet inn et par timer senere.  Intet tyder på at båten har fått store skader, men det vil ta litt tid å sjekke fullstendig.

Det ble også igår klart at Alinghis seilforening SNG kommer til å anke rettens beslutning om ikke å godkjenne Ras as-Khaimah som base for America´s Cup  regattaen i februar neste år.

Utskrift av intervju med Larry Ellison i San Diego:

BMW Oracle Racing team owner Larry Ellison was in San Diego last Friday to see

the latest modifications on BOR 90, and he took time to sit with Shirley

Robertson for an interview on the CNN Mainsail show. While he would not commit

to the America’s Cup Match being held in the United States if his team won,

and he was evasive about being on the boat during the 33rd Match, he did offer

up the following:

“There will be a 33rd America’s Cup, and it will be settled on the water. This

is something that Ernesto Bertarelli does not want. He keeps saying that he

wants to settle it on the water. No he doesn’t. Why did he try to disqualify

our boat, saying that our rudders were in the wrong place? Why does he say

that the jury should work for him, that the umpires should work for him, if he

wants to settle this on the water? He doesn’t want to race. He is the one that

proposed these absurd rules, he is the one that doesn’t want a level playing

field. He is the one that chose RAK when the Deed of Gift is crystal clear

that you cannot race in the Northern Hemisphere in the winter.”

“(Ernesto) doesn’t want a fair race, and when you are competing with someone

who doesn’t want to compete fairly, that’s a problem. But it is not our

problem, it is his problem.”

“(Team CEO Russell Coutts) has been on the water 14 times, and he is 14-0 (in

the America’s Cup). Does Ernesto Bertarelli really mean to say that Russell

Coutts is afraid to sail against him, that we don’t want to go out on the

water and race him? We do want to go out on the water and race him, and we

think we have a pretty good chance. Russell has never lost.”

“If we win the 33rd America’s Cup, we are going to race these America’s Cup

boats not once every four years, we are going to race these America’s Cup

boats a half a dozen times a year. We will have a race in Newport, we will

have a race in Italy, we will have a race in France. The America’s Cup class

of racing will go on year round, and some of those races will certainly be in

the United States, I think both Newport, Rhode Island and also maybe San

Francisco.”

“After this Match, Ernesto said that if he wins, he is going to keep these

giant multihulls (for the next America’s Cup). We are not going to do that. If

we win, and I think we are going to win, we are going to go back to

traditional monohulls and traditional match racing, where all of the teams can

participate in a traditional multi-challenger event. Probably in boats that

are a little more modern and faster than the Class 5 America’s Cup boats that

we raced in the 32nd Match (in 2007). This (multihull event) is going to be a

one-time only extreme sailing event for the America’s Cup.”

Se intervju med Ernesto Bertarelli: